John Mayo Biggs was born in 1878 in Dorchester, Dorset and baptised on Friday, 22nd November in the same year at St Peter’s Church in the town. He was the oldest child born to Thomas Strange Biggs and Annie Mayo and he had one sibling, a sister Marian Sophy. His father died in 1905 aged sixty-six and John inherited a proportion of his substantial £591,000 (today’s money) estate. His father Thomas was a "Wine Merchant" and "Importer" and ran his business from 3 High Street West in Dorchester, directly opposite the church were John was baptised. His premises were just a few doors away from the old "County House", the former lodgings of Judge Jeffreys who in 1685 condemned 292 People to death at the "Bloody Assizes", of which seventy-four were executed and the heads of some impaled on spikes outside St Peters church.

By the 1901 census John was recorded as a "Brewer" aged twenty-two and was living in Kensington in London at the home of one Thomas Chatwin, a "Builder". It is possible that John was learning the brewing trade at the nearby Notting Hill Brewery on Portland Road. He was still living and working in Dorchester in 1915, but shortly afterwards, moved to Hemel Hempstead to take ownership of the Star Brewery at 23 to 25 Bury Road, which he had recently acquired from William Spicer Elliot. He very quickly began to market his wares styling the business "Biggs’ Brewery" and placed adverts in the Hemel Gazette.

Brewing was a "Starred" or "Scheduled" occupation following the outbreak of war and whilst this did not prevent enlistment, it offered some exemption. However, following the passing of the Military Service Act in 1916, many of these jobs were "un-starred" and additionally, the maximum enlistment age was raised to forty-one. It may have been this law which encouraged John to volunteer, which he did in October 1916. He put the brewery up for sale an event reported in the Hemel Hempstead Gazette. The Brewery was purchased by Edgar Needham, the owner and publisher of the Hemel Hempstead Gazette. His son Joseph was also killed in the Great War and his biography appears on this site.

John attested at Hemel Hempstead and enlisted with the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) and was posted for basic training. He was posted overseas six months later on the 2nd May 1917 and joined the 32nd Battalion in France later the same month. He was soon in action and fought in the Battles of Messines, Pilckem Ridge and the Menin Road before his unit was sent to Italy in November 1917 where it was concentrated north west of Mantua. He returned to France with his Battalion on the 2nd March 1918 before being transferred to the 23rd Battalion Royal Fusiliers on the 19th March.  He joined his new unit in the vicinity of St Quentin as the Germans made preparations to launch "Operation Michael" on the 21st March. Their goal was to break through the allied lines and head north-west to capture the channel ports and to this end they had assembled a force of 74 divisions, 6,600 guns, 3,500 mortars and 326 fighter aircraft over a forty three mile front. R. C. Sherriff's play "Journey's End" (first produced 1928) is set in an officers' dugout in the British trenches facing Saint-Quentin from the 18th to the 21st March, before Operation Michael. There are frequent references to the anticipated "big German attack" and the play concludes with the launch of the German bombardment, in which one of the central characters is killed.

From the 21st March, John fought with his comrades in an exhausting defence at the Battle of St Quentin which, after three days became the Battle of Bapaume began. The second day of this action proved to be both confusing and demoralising for the allied troops and casualties were significant as a result of the constant enemy attacks.

John was killed during these actions and his official death date is recorded as Monday, 25th March 1918.

When his will was executed in 1919, John’s estate was valued at £6735 8s 9d, approximately £241,000 in today’s money.

He was commemorated on the Holy Trinity War Memorial in his native Dorchester.

John is Remembered with Honour on the Arras Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France, Bay 3.

He was 40 years old when he died.

John was eligible for the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.